President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy traveling in car, May 1961.

Courtesy of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library

President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy in Dallas, Texas; 1963.

Narrated by George Clooney, "JFK: One PM Central Standard Time," premiering Wednesday, November 13, 2013 on PBS, recounts the riveting story of the reporting from Dallas and the CBS Newsroom in New York from the moment President Kennedy was shot until Cronkite’s emotional pronouncement of his death at 1 p.m. CST.

In 1962, Cronkite accepted the offer to anchor the CBS Evening News, but with one condition: to be the Managing Editor as well. Though the term Managing Editor was not used in television, Cronkite knew he’d be able to determine which stories would be aired and how they would be handled. Having the final decision rest with him would be key on that fatal day one year later in Dallas as he employed all of his journalistic skills to report the story of a lifetime.

In September 1963, Cronkite launched the extended CBS Evening News with an interview with Kennedy. He was 46, the same age as the President. Both men were Second World War veterans; Cronkite had been a war correspondent in Europe and Kennedy had commanded a Torpedo patrol-boat in the Pacific; and both men knew how to effectively use the new medium of television. Eight weeks later, on November 22, Cronkite and Kennedy would be forever linked in history.

Through re-enactments of the CBS newsroom in New York and anecdotal accounts from those in Dallas, the chaos of that day unfolds. Bennett and Hampton vividly recall the actions of UPI correspondent Merriman Smith, who after hearing gunshots, grabbed the one phone in the press pool car and started dictating to his desk in Dallas, “Three shots were fired at the motorcade!”

Cronkite had been a distinguished wire-service reporter. He relied on the wires and knew Smith’s reporting would be accurate. Though he wanted to be the first to break the news, at that point Smith didn’t know if Kennedy had been hit or even if he was wounded. Faced with the story of a lifetime, how does Cronkite choose to handle the story?

From the first reporting of the shooting to his announcement of Kennedy’s death, “Walter turned in his best day and one of the best days the business of news has ever had…and he happened to do it on what was the worst day in modern times,” says Brian Williams.